Blurry eyed, unshaven, and pretty damn sore, I've returned from my week climbing in North Cascades National Park. My life over the past five days: Lots and lots of alpine climbing.
My daily routine went something like this (with slight variation after day three when I discovered that mice had gotten into the trunk of my rental car and eaten their way through the majority of my food): Wake at 6:00 a.m.; enjoy drip coffee and oatmeal before driving to the base of some alpine rock face and thinking to myself, "There's absolutely no way I can climb that"; walk for approximately three hours up a steep snowfield in hiking boots hardly fit for the task, eventually reaching the base of the rock only to get harassed by a pack of mountain goats who really liked my pee; rope up and climb for several more hours, oscillating between total fear and the delusion that I might be having some fun; summit high five, pictures, more mountain goats, then some down climbing, rappelling, and sliding down the snowfield to arrive safe and sound at the car by 6:30 p.m.; and, finally, a quick dinner and skim through the guidebook's description of the next day's climb before bed. Turns out that alpine rock climbing is kinda hard.
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| Making moves on the Southwest Rib, South Early Winter Spire, just after muscling through my first semi-off-width crack, aptly named the "Bear Hug." |
Details on the climbs to come . . . and, unfortunately, it looks like I'll have lots of time to blog over the coming weeks. I had two things to do in June: (1) write the bar exam; and (2) find a place to live. I failed miserably at the second. Well, not entirely. I did find a place to live. It's just that on moving day we learned it's invested with bed bugs. (F-ing bed bugs?!) So, while the plan was to stay out west and climb for the month, you know what they say about the best laid plans. Tomorrow I head home to search for a new home -- preferably one that doesn't have tiny little things that will bite me while I sleep and cause permanent psychological damage. Good fun.
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| The playground I leave behind. |
